Only nine months into his captaincy tenure, Virat Kohli has had his hands full. If being the nation’s “next Sachin Tendulkar” and dating a Bollywood actor was not enough, taking on the toughest job in cricket has only doubled the scrutiny on his every move.

Leading the Indian team to a first series victory in Sri Lanka in 22 years made for a wonderful start.

A review of his stint so far shows signs of a captain who is fresh in his approach, knows his priorities well, is still a little rough in his conduct and is willing to accepting his mistakes for the greater good of the team.

The rebel

As India’s Test skipper, Kohli has already made huge waves. He has come in with his own mandate, which is free from prejudice, and his outspoken nature in media interactions makes it clear that he isn’t going to play by the rules that preceded him.

The ultimate philosophy is this: be aggressive in attitude and always play to win. If you’re copping it from the opposition, feel free to give it back – like Kohli did to Mitchell Johnson Down Under in some style – though this has its own downside which is visited later in this piece.

His utter dislike for playing safe resonates well with a modern cricket fan and provides a refreshing contrast to his predecessor MS Dhoni’s methods. His arrival was seen as a breath of fresh air, a welcome transition from the dull to the exciting, and he has been true to his word.

Bowler friendly

Kohli’s insistence on a five-bowler strategy generated plenty of discussions in the cricket fraternity. He has been bold in sacrificing a bit of India’s traditional strength, its batting, in favour of finding the right balance and cover for its traditional weakness, its bowling. The result? Only the second time in India’s Test history did its bowlers take all 60 wickets in a three-Test series.

Even though the five-bowler tactic was subsequently shelved in favour of including a bowling all-rounder (Stuart Binny) for a specialist bowler (Harbhajan Singh), it gave much-needed support to the Indian bowlers – who are often unfairly dubbed as the black sheep of Indian cricket.

Kohli rotated his three seamers, namely Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Binny, to near perfection on the seamer-friendly wickets of Colombo and brought the best out of both Sharma and Yadav.

Kohli is well aware that bowlers will win him Test matches and he has smartly ensured that they feel they have the right support. After the defeat in the first Test at Galle, when India failed to chase 173 on the final day, he put the blame squarely and entirely on the batsmen’s shoulders.

The day before that infamous batting collapse, Indian bowlers had let Sri Lanka off the hook. However, Kohli insisted that the bowlers had done their job in taking 20 wickets and in setting up a low-scoring chase.

The skipper got the best out of Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra. Both spinners were confident enough to entice batsmen with flight. With their captain on the attack, Ashwin and Mishra transformed into wicket-taking bowlers and rediscovered their Test mojo.

In one particular instance in the final Test, Kohli even overruled Mishra’s request for a fielder in the deep, telling him instead to focus on bowling attacking lengths rather than worrying about conceding runs.

One of the standout aspects of Kohli’s captaincy during the Sri Lanka series was a willingness to accept mistakes and make immediate corrections both on and off the field. He comes across as a captain who is confident but not adamant, self-assured but not stubborn.

In discarding his own five-bowler theory after the Galle Test, he acknowledged that the timing of this change wasn’t right – that India didn’t have enough batting depth to cover for a long tail.

Flying in Binny in the middle of a series could have been perceived as a sign of weakness or panic but Kohli’s evaluations only saw it as a logical requirement for the rest of the series.

Even in selecting his playing XI, Kohli wasn’t shy of chopping and changing.

Picking Varun Aaron ahead of both Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the series opener was purely the skipper’s choice. When it backfired badly, he made immediate amends by replacing Aaron with Yadav – who went on to bowl some of the best spells of his short Test career.

Kohli also axed veteran Harbhajan Singh from the side after a listless performance at Galle, while Rohit Sharma, who was clearly unsuitable for a number three role, was bumped down to number five where he flourished – ending as India’s second-highest run-getter.

On the field too, Kohli was not afraid of giving his spinners the new ball if he felt they were the biggest threats to the Lankan line-up.

He set up attacking fields when India were on top and did not retreat as fast as Dhoni used to when under the cosh. Although he did make a couple of odd decisions – like forcing Ishant and Yadav to bounce the opposition out on a slow pitch or taking Ashwin out of the attack immediately after he picked up a wicket – such choices were few and far between.

One big blot on Kohli’s largely neat report card though is the way he handled Ishant’s embarrassing behaviour in the final Test match.

The skipper should have acted well in advance to keep the pacer in check when his altercations with Dinesh Chandimal and Dhammika Prasad were exceeding the moral boundaries of sledging.

Ishant was a repeat offender too. He had already been fined 65% of his match fee for his unnecessary send-offs in the second Test. In the third, his behaviour bordered on lunacy, for which he received a one-Test ban.

Kohli’s failure in controlling the situation has now cost him his best pacer for the first Test against South Africa.

Perhaps, you can also empathise with Kohli here. It is possible that had he spoken to Ishant and subdued the situation, the lanky pacer would not have been charged up to produce a devastating series-winning spell of 5/54.

Kohli himself thrives on challenge and conflict. It brings the best out of him. But there is a balance to be achieved and lines not to be crossed.

Over time, Kohli will grow into the job and mature as a person. Perhaps, he will even curb a bit of his own misguided, surplus aggression. For now though, all signs point towards an encouraging future for Indian cricket under his guidance.

This article was originally published on Scroll.in and has been reproduced here with permission.